The Invisible Sacrifice

I don't even know why I've waited so long to publish this. I guess I just wanted to make it special, and never found the time. But time is irrelevant when you can find a perfect MOMENT for such a thing.

And this, this is the second anniversary. Plus three days or so. Doesn't get much sooner or better.

It started off somewhere in the alley of correspondence chess, between what now seem to have been two absolute beginners, playing almost absurdly when there is enough time for everything a good quality chess game requires: logic, evaluation, calculation, and, most importantly for us loving amateurs, art. But the best part was, we were (most obviously ) using our heads only! No stem games, no databases, just - chess!

As always, I hope you'll like it, and also congratulate Knightqueen on a very well-played game!

Thanks! I should also mention that even some of Black's pieces on the seventh rank (Bd7 and Re7) helped White with the attack by cutting some escape squares away from the Black King, although White's Queen was already ready to exert its influence on the d-file anyway.

Thanks again! UPDATE: I have deleted the two variations which were featuring ...h5 on moves thirteen and fourteen, because Black could've played that on almost any move from thirteen to twenty, and analyzing all those possibilities for completeness would be too broad and complicated for this topic, since it's really about the game the way it happened. Instead, I have added a very interesting variation with sub-variations on move sixteen. See if you like it!

If he played 4. ... Qh4 instead of Qf6, you would have been in trouble. The steinitz variation in my opinion busts the scotch game.

Aaaahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahaaa! And THAT's why we have opinions!

But really, if it was so good or refuting White's side of the story, no White player would play the Scotch anymore, except as an odds game. But I can see where you're going with this, it often gives Black active play that many White players don't like facing. I probably wouldn't either, but then I just think of how Nimzowitsch used to blockade almost any position, and I feel better already. In fact, the very game I'm showing here turned out more closed in nature than I'd expected it to be when I played... (drum roll) 3. d4!!!!!!!xD

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